Last month I blogged about “variable data publishing in the future“.

I envisioned that in the future, magazines, catalogs, etc will be completely customized to the individual. It will know your interests and maybe buying behavior (but not in a creepy way) and have content that is more targeted and relevant to you.

Despite the current economic downturn, it seems some people are beginning to get how powerful this can be. I’ve been having some conversations on twitter (@RyanLou) about how this can be profitable for publishers and they are echoing some of my ideas.

Even large publishers are beginning to get it. A co-worker saw this on the news this morning and directed my attention to it.

Today, Time, Inc. launched an application, with sponsorship from Lexus, for recipients to receive 5 different magazines over a span of time with content that is personalized to them. In the application, http://www.timeinc.com/mine they asked respondents a set of 4 questions that would determine what variation of the magazines they would receive. For more on the story: Read here.

This certainly is a start to fully personalized publications. The technology for even more complex personalization that includes magazine ad already exist. What is needed is relevant information about your readers and a willingness to break the mould and try something that is not commonplace!

Time Inc’s application: http://www.timeinc.com/mine

A story on what Time did:  http://TinyURL.com/TimeMine

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